Collapsible Enteral Bottle With Hinge Columns
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing collapsible bottles for enteral feeding solutions face challenges in stability and ease of handling, especially when not full or when surfaces are wet, and they often require air to maintain shape during emptying, which can lead to contamination risks.
Innovation Solution
A collapsible bottle design featuring a thin-walled body with hinge columns providing axial stiffness, allowing for controlled collapse without air entry, integrated hanging tabs, and a waisted shape for improved grip and stability, manufactured through blow-moulding with polyethylene materials.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the bottle is made flexible to allow collapse during emptying, then air-free dispensing is achieved, but stability and ease of gripping deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The bottle incorporates rigid zones (shoulder region and base region) and a flexible zone (waist region) with different mechanical properties. The rigid zones maintain stability and gripability, while the flexible waist region enables collapse during emptying without requiring air admission, thus maintaining sterility.
Solution Approach 2:
The bottle body is segmented into distinct functional regions: a rigid shoulder region adjacent to the neck, a flexible waist region with minimum circumference, and a rigid base region. This segmentation allows different parts to perform different functions - the rigid parts provide stability for handling while the flexible waist enables collapse.
2Stability of the object's composition
If the bottle is made rigid to maintain shape during transport, then structural stability is improved, but air must be admitted during emptying which compromises sterility
Solution Approach 1:
The bottle employs local quality by making specific regions (shoulder and base) rigid to maintain shape during transport and handling, while the waist region is designed to be flexible to enable collapse during emptying without air admission, thus maintaining sterility throughout the dispensing process.
Solution Approach 2:
The bottle transitions from a static rigid structure to a dynamic structure where the waist region can flex and collapse during emptying. This dynamic capability allows the bottle to adapt its shape as contents are dispensed without requiring air to enter, maintaining sterility while enabling complete emptying.
3Adaptability or versatility
If thin-walled material is used to enable collapse, then flexibility is improved, but handling stability deteriorates when not full or when wet
Solution Approach 1:
The bottle uses thin-walled material selectively in the waist region to enable collapse, while the shoulder and base regions maintain sufficient thickness for stability. This local differentiation allows the bottle to collapse flexibly during emptying while remaining stable for handling when full or partially full, even when surfaces are wet.
Data Source
Figure 1~2A
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Figure 5~6
AI summary
A collapsible bottle for enteral feed has a thin-walled body extending axially from a base to a neck and having a front, a back and two sides that define a width dimension of the bottle. The body has a shoulder region adjacent to the neck, a hip region adjacent to the base and a waist region therebetween and the circumference of the bottle in the waist region is less than the circumference of the bottle in both the hip region and the shoulder region. The bottle is provided with hinge columns that extend between the hip region and the shoulder region at the sides of the bottle. The hinge columns provide the wall of the body with a region of increased stiffness in the axial direction while facilitating bending of the wall about the hinge column.